82 
HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
sented her to his wife, who spoke English with some fluency, 
and as she had a little time to spare, he took her to the Beer 
House, where they sat at the professors’ table. It was so called 
because a number of the university instructors, lawyers, doc¬ 
tors, and scientists met there for an hour or so each evening 
and discussed all sorts of subjects, special or general. 
After a long, tedious ride to Paris, the weather being stormy, 
she was ill for more than a fortnight, and unable to “record 
events in chronological order.” Then she fell in with “a dis¬ 
tinctly artistic set,” and so did not push forward her scientific 
opportunities as she would have desired. But she visited the 
School of Pharmacy and got there some new ideas and learned 
that there were lectures at the Jardin des Plantes. 
She visited the wonderful picture collection of M. Theo¬ 
dore Duret. Among them were seventeen Monets, which he 
had bought some time before when they still brought small 
prices. Duret informed her that, having his pictures, he wished 
for no wife. He slept on a low couch, which he called his bed, 
in order that he might give some turkeys, by Monet, a good 
position and light. She noticed on his table a new work on 
Spinoza, and asked him if he was an admirer. He seemed 
pleased to find her enthusiastic. He asked her if she liked 
Wagner, and when she replied in the affirmative, he said 
those things all went together. He then gave her his book 
and a letter of introduction to Whistler. 
She was delighted with the magnificent collection of Japan¬ 
ese engravings and pictures which M. Bing had gathered 
together. She spent an afternoon and evening at his house 
looking over his treasures. She was amazed at the immense 
variety in Japanese combs, many with exquisite crystal tips. 
She also was fascinated with a “kind of jade green enamel 
quite elaborately ornamented with gold tracings.” At his 
house, she met M. Gonze, the editor of “ Les Beaux Arts,” a 
great authority on Japanese painting. 
By the twenty-second of November, Miss Abbott was in 
London again, full of zeal for her future work, and making 
arrangements for an ample supply of seeds, plants, and drugs 
which she found she could secure through Christy. This 
